


Try again

by octoaliencowboy



Category: DCU (Comics), Super Sons, robin: son of batman
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Truth or Dare, friendship :D, i wrote this months ago and forgot to post it rip hdhsjd, kinda i guess, parental problems posse, suren is an agent of chaos and also like. What is he
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-21
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-07-15 04:14:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16055345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/octoaliencowboy/pseuds/octoaliencowboy
Summary: Damian Wayne absolutely hated truth or dare. It was pointless and led to nothing but humiliation and shame.And sometimes it also led to making up with an old friend you’d never thought you’d see again.





	Try again

Damian Wayne absolutely _hated_ truth or dare.

 

It was simply a meaningless game meant to trick people into doing embarrassing things and revealing embarrassing secrets, and if Damian never played truth or dare again it would be too soon. If he was made fool of himself tonight then he would have his revenge on Grayson.

 

Because _of course_ it was Grayson’s fault. After all, it had been Grayson who convinced him to host an actual birthday party this year. It was his idea to gather a bunch of Damian’s friends for a sleepover. And therefore _he_ was responsible for his friends suggesting they play truth or dare.

 

He, Suren, Maya, Duke, and Jon had already consumed ludicrous amounts of cake and pizza, and now they were gathered in a circle in Damian’s room, playing the cursed game.

 

“Jon, truth or dare?” Maya asked when it was her turn, grinning deviously. Poor Jon.

 

“Um, dare.”

 

“I dare you to say the f word.”

 

Jon blanched, and Suren snickered at him. “Leave the poor boy be, Maya, he’s just a baby.”

 

“Well, either he does the dare or he drinks the Punishment Juice.”

 

Ah, yes, the Punishment Juice. A mason jar full of mashed avocado, raw eggs, baking powder, olive oil, lethal amounts of salt and hot sauce, blended to death.

 

Just earlier, Duke had decided he’d rather do that than go down to the cave and hug Batman.

 

And right now it looked like Jon was seriously considering it.

 

“Can’t we come to a compromise or something?” He pleaded. Maya shook her head.

 

“Nope!”

 

Jon sighed in defeat. “F...f-f…”

 

Maya cheered. “You can do it, Jonny!”

 

“F… F-fuuuuh nevermind. My dad might hear.” He hid his face in his hands.

 

Suren cackled. “Then drink!”

 

Jon did, and almost threw up. Damian winced in sympathy. Truth or dare, to sum up, got one into quite a bit of _trouble_. The group gave Jon a second to recover before they moved on to the next person’s turn, going in the agreed upon counter clockwise order.

 

The next person happened to be Duke. Damian didn’t trust the smirk playing on the teen’s face.

 

“Hey Damian, truth or dare.”

 

Damian huffed, and decided to try for the supposedly easier route. “Truth.”

 

“Okay,” said Duke. “What was the deal with that kid from Starbucks?”

 

“No. I changed my mind. I pick dare.” Damian quickly backtracked. Duke raised an eyebrow at him.

 

“Then I _dare_ you to tell me what’s the deal with that kid from Starbucks.”

 

_Damn loopholes._

 

“What? What kid from Starbucks?” Maya said, while Suren and Jon looked on in confusion.

 

“There _is no_ kid.” Damian said at the same time that Duke said “So, while we were at Starbucks the other day, the wildest thing happened-- see, Damian was already grumpy enough as it was, more so than usual. He was all like… _‘I don’t care for Starbucks’_...”

 

“I do not sound like that!”

 

“You do too! Anyway…”

  


Damian didn’t care for Starbucks. The products were ridiculous and overpriced, and not even how real coffee worked, it was overpopulated and everything in there-- from the tables to the bathrooms-- was disgusting. He expressed this opinion loudly while he and Duke waited in line and all throughout Duke trying to order for the both of them, occasionally interrupting his own rant about something that had happened earlier at school in order to do so. Duke suppressed a sigh, wondering if maybe the younger teen would pass out from lack of oxygen, he hadn’t stopped talking in so long. Part of him was glad Damian had grown comfortable enough in their friendship to actually, you know, talk about stuff, but another, slightly more exasperated part of him kinda wished the kid would just shut up already.

 

When their order had finally been taken and paid for they made their way over to the other counter to wait, having to dodge more than a couple bodies in the process. Damian scowled at the near swarm of bodies surrounding them-- he hated large crowds and the presence of one now only served to contribute to his stormy mood. He continued his rant as the two teens shoved their way through.

 

“And the teacher actually agreed with him! So now I have to deal with the fact that there’s _two_ \- agh!” Damian cut himself off with a shout as someone already at the counter turned around suddenly, smacking right into Damian and their drink practically exploding between them on impact, covering them both in sticky iced coffee.

 

“Oh my god!” Duke yelped, reaching for a handful of napkins while Damian and the other person both rounded on each other.

 

“Watch where you’re fucking _going_ \-- Damian?” Said the stranger, anger turning to shock and then contempt so quickly Duke got whiplash.

 

“...Colin?” Damian said, equally shocked. “I… it’s been a long time.”

 

“Yeah.” The kid- Colin, apparently- said, practically snarling.

 

“Damian, dude, are you alright?” Duke came over with the napkins and Colin’s gaze snapped immediately to him.

 

“Who’s this, Damian? Another one of your convenient tools?”

 

Damian recoiled, looking… what, hurt? Guilty? Something. Damian was difficult to read in the best of times, and while the other bat brats seemed to be able to translate the quirk of an eyebrow or a half lidded glare, Duke couldn’t make heads or tails of him in normal social situations. Damian broke his baffled stare to instead glare at the other boy, erasing his brief moment of vulnerability as if it had never happened.  “That was uncalled for, Wilkes.”

 

Colin- Wilkes- whoever it was, scoffed. “No it wasn’t.” He said, snatching some napkins off the counter and wiping down the front of his jacket, muttering.

 

“Colin--“

 

“Don’t talk to me.” The kid snapped, stomping away and out the door, leaving the two other boys gaping by the counter. A moment passed before Duke spoke again. He grabbed some more napkins.

 

“So… what, bitter ex? Broke his yo-yo or something? You got beef with every random gotham kid you meet, or what?”

 

Damian let out a strangled noise, eyes bulging. “No! He’s… we were, well- not- Ugh. It’s none of your business.”

 

“Aw, come on, man!”

 

“I will not. Quit your obnoxious prying.”

 

“What- alright, I don’t even care. I shouldn’t be surprised anymore how you all can’t even have one normal relationship.”

 

“As if you’re one to talk, Thomas. Tell me it’s normal to turn all of your colleagues into a cult of false heroes.”

 

Duke considered this as Damian huffed and started making his way to an empty table, still wiping furiously at his soiled shirt.

 

“Gotham isn’t normal.” Duke protested. He sat down, set his coffee on the table and crossed his arms. “...I won’t tell Bruce, or Dick. Promise. Just tell me half of the story. Is he--”

 

“I _said_ it’s none of your _business!”_ Damian punctuated by slamming his hands down on the table. The café went silent, those who had been watching their altercation before no longer bothering to hide their eavesdropping.

  


 

“And it’s _still_ none of your business.”

 

“Come on little man, I’m dying over here! I need to know the tea!” Duke cried out, clearly absolutely debilitated by his impatience.

 

“Damian, you simply must tell us!” Said Suren. The others nodded in agreement.

 

“Please, D? We’re your friends, you can tell us. We can help, I swear.” Jon pleaded, expression sincere as could be. Maya tried a different approach-- she caught Damian’s eye and stared him down.

 

“If you don’t tell us, you have to drink the Punishment Juice.”

 

This was exactly why Damian hated truth or dare. He looked from Maya to the Punishment Juice, back to Maya, then at the others in the circle. He was at the crossroads of life, faced with a cruel decision-- an impossible choice. Did he make a fool of himself in front of his friends, or did he drink what was possibly poison and maybe die? To pick between hells, to choose one unholy punishment over the other? Damian would rather die at the crossroads. Let his corpse rot until only bones remained, lying there in the dirt. To have taken the coward’s way out, yet to have his soul remain unburdened by the result of either path.

 

Eventually, though, he had to stop monologuing internally and make up his mind.

 

“Before I met any of you, when I first became Robin…” Damian started, still hesitant. Everyone leaned in closer to listen. “While investigating a ring that kidnapped children and forced them to fight each other for a futile chance at freedom, I met a boy my age who was also investigating the disappearances. Independently. His name was Colin.” Damian took a deep breath before continuing.

 

“He was a meta. He had a synthetic version of bane’s venom in his body that he could activate at will. He discovered my secret identity and saved my life.” He paused, carefully considering his next words.

 

“We became friends, but... I treated him like an object, an accessory, a tool to be used. Not like a friend at all. He was understandably upset, and we had a fight. Then he, completely within his rights, never spoke to me again.”

 

“Wow.” Suren said. “That’s awful.”

 

“And when we saw him he was obviously still super pissed at you. You must have really hurt him.” Duke said.

 

Damian sighed, barely hiding a wince at the words. The salt was in the wound and it was in there deep. “I know. It’s one of my biggest regrets.”

 

“Did you ever, you know, say sorry?” Jon asked. Damian blinked, then turned his gaze to the floor in shame as the realization sunk in. 

 

“...No...” He whispered to the ground.

 

“You know, it’s not too late to make amends.” Maya said. “You can still fix this. So if you want to make things right, then _do it_. Screw truth or dare, let’s go to his house. Right now.”

 

Damian shook his head. “No. He doesn’t want to see me and I will respect that. Why don’t we just carry on with this cursed game? Suren, choose mortal embarrassment or invasion of privacy.”

 

“But don’t you miss him?” Jon blurted before Suren could respond. “Don’t you want to at least _try_?”

  


Damian really, _really_ hated truth or dare. It was the devil’s game.

 

It had escalated wildly and now their group was standing out in a dark alley in the lower-middle class parts of Gotham.  A small, shuttered window hung three stories above, its soft yellow light seeping down into the darkness through the blinds.

 

Maya craned her neck to look up at the window. “How’s your x-ray vision, Jon? Can you see if he’s in there?” Jon squinted and shrugged.

 

“Not that great, but I can try.” He paused, pursing his lips discontentedly. “Isn’t this a bit much? Why can’t we just knock on the door like _normal people?_ ”

 

“Yeah, normal people who show up for a visit in the middle of the night. Unannounced. Definitely not planning to rob the place.” Duke muttered.

 

This was ridiculous. They shouldn’t have been there. They didn’t need to be bothering Colin when Colin so clearly wanted nothing to do with him. It hadn’t taken much effort at all to find his new address-- He’d been moved from the orphanage to a foster home since Damian had known him, and apparently Batman had been keeping tabs on Colin all this time. It made sense-- he was a meta and apparently still an active crime fighter, though Damian had never seen him around.

 

That was probably intentional. Colin may never have been the stealthiest of people, but Damian hadn’t exactly been making an effort to track the boy down, either. They had both been avoiding each other for a long time. And while Damian could admit he wanted that to change, it didn’t mean he thought the effort would be anything but futile.

 

“Yeah, that’s him I think.” Jon said, squinting up at the bricks. “Shaggy red hair, kinda spindly?”

 

“That’s him.” Said Duke. “What’s he doing right now?”

 

“I’m pretty sure he’s just lying on his bed, with a, uh… book? Yeah, he’s reading a book.”

 

“So what now?” Asked Suren. “How are we supposed to get his attention?”

 

Maya answered by picking up a pebble and chucking it at the window. It bounced off the wall next to it.

 

Huffing, she picked up another one, and soon they were all chucking pebbles at the window with varying levels of success while Damian sulked by the wall.

 

“We could always just… break the window?” Suren suggested after a moment.

 

“No!” Jon cried. “That’s illegal and also rude! There has to be another way.”

 

Maya snorted.

 

“Let’s just leave.” Damian said, arms crossed sullenly. “We shouldn’t have even come here in the first place and this is clearly a sign we are not welcome. It’s not- where’s Jon?”

 

The others blinked, staring at the empty spot where the youngest of their group had been just seconds ago. Maya glanced to the side just in time to see him dash out of the alley.

 

“There!”

 

“Jonathan, what are you _doing_?”  Damian hissed. He stuck his head out of the alleyway to peak around the corner after the super powered child, watching in horror as Jon marched up the steps to the front door. He ducked back behind the corner as the little fool rang the doorbell. Unlike some young idiots, he had the sense not to be seen.

  


Jon smiled as sweetly as he could at the woman who opened the door. She was tall, with strong looking arms and cropped, dirty blonde hair.

 

“Uh, can I help you?” She said, clearly confused as to why there was a little kid at her door so late at night. A shy grin from Jon quickly eased her sense of suspicion.

 

“Hello, ma’am!” Jon nervously fidgeted with the corners of his sleeves and rocked back on his heels. “Is Colin here? We used to be friends back at Saint Aden’s and I wanted to see him.”

 

The woman blinked. “Uh, sure. Here, come on in.”

 

Jon grinned to himself. _Eat your heart out, Damian._ He thought. _You’re not the only one who can act._

 

There was another woman sitting at the kitchen table who shot the first woman a questioning look as they passed by. The first woman just shrugged in response, leading Jon up the stairs. “Colin’s in his room.” She said to him, knocking on a door before gently pushing it open. “Hey sport, you have a visitor.”

 

“What?” Colin said, sitting up and taking off a large pair of headphones.

 

“I’ll just leave you two be.” The woman smiled and left the room, closing the door behind her. Jon was left in the room with Colin, who was sizing him up warily.

 

“Who are you?”

 

Jon hesitated, not really sure what to say next. “I’m, um… I’m a friend of Damian’s.”

 

Colin scoffed, tossing his book aside. “Are you sure?”

 

Jon frowned. “Okay, listen.” He said. “I don’t know you, and I don’t know what Damian was like when you knew him but… I do know he’s grown a lot. And he’s learned a lot. And he regrets how he treated you and he’s sorry and he wants to make it up to you.” He marched over to the window, yanking the blinds up and opening the window. “If you wanna talk to him, then come outside. You don’t have to, obviously, but I think you should.”

 

Superboy climbed out the window, ignoring Colin’s alarmed “Hey!” behind him, simply floating in the air.

 

Jon looked back to see the other boy’s unamused look. He shifted uncomfortably and extended a hand. “Are… are you coming?”

 

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Damian glaring at him from the ground.

 

“I can get down by myself.” Colin grumbled, swatting away Jon's hand. He leaned out the window and looked down into the alley below.

 

There was Damian, looking back up at him. The expression on his face was unreadable. Colin gulped, then grabbed onto the makeshift rappel system beside his window and made his way down the building.

 

When his feet made contact with the ground Colin turned, now face to face with Damian. He looked different from when they were younger, and yet, he looked the same. He had grown, for one, not by much but he _had_ grown. His clothes were largely the same. His hair was a different style, and the constant furrow of his brow was still there, if softer, and stained with the most open uncertainty and vulnerability Colin had ever seen on the other boy’s face.

 

He wasn’t sure how to feel about it, and he silently decided he would let Damian do the talking, this time.

 

Damian hadn’t been able to get that good of a look at Colin during their encounter at the coffee shop. The other boy’s hair was much longer, probably grown out on purpose, and there were a number of piercings in his ears and one in his eyebrow as well. He wore a band t-shirt that Damian didn’t recognize, but if he had to guess what they sounded like based on their merch he would have said _loud._ He was so different from how he was years ago, but at the same time, he hadn’t changed at all.

 

The others in the group carefully shuffled away from the two of them in order to give the boys some space. This was a private moment.

 

“Hello, Colin.” Damian said, refusing to break the challenging eye contact Colin had established.

 

Colin said nothing, and Damian sighed. It was now or never-- he had to get it _all_ out.

 

“When we met I was immature and foolish. I had never had a friend before, and I had no idea how to _be_ one. I’m sorry I treated you poorly, so poorly you had every right to cease contact with me like you did. I deserved it.”

 

“My mistreatment of you and my inability to make things right at the time remains to this day one of my biggest regrets. Since then I’ve learned how to be better, and… and I wish you would give me another chance. Though I don’t expect you to, and I understand if you simply send me away without a word. You deserve an apology, but I don’t deserve your forgiveness.”

 

Damian looked at Colin, and the other boy’s face was a mess of emotion. He looked conflicted, and opened and closed his mouth a few times before he managed to actually speak.

 

“I… you do deserve forgiveness, Damian.” He said, glancing away. There were some fascinating pebbles gathered on the ground.

 

“A while ago… after we hadn’t been talking for a while, I was lonely, and I missed you, even though you had been a jerk. I decided I wanted to give you a second chance on thin ice. But I couldn’t find you anywhere, during the night or day. So I went and I found Nightwing.”

 

Colin paused, taking a deep breath. Damian knew what he was going to say next.

 

“He told me you were _dead_ , Damian. And I just… I didn’t know what to do. I felt terrible, like it was _my_ fault you were gone, and then you were _back somehow_ and it was like we had never even met. I didn’t know what to believe. I had kind of hoped it was, like, an imposter, or just a new Robin, or anything else. Because if it wasn’t really you, then I would be able to accept not talking to you anymore. You never tried to reach out, and I guess that would have hurt even more than what you did in the first place. That’s why I acted like that at the Starbucks-- I wasn’t ready to see you after so long, to face that you really were back and you didn’t even try to fix anything, and I didn't know how to react. So I lashed out like I always do. I’m sorry.”

 

Damian sucked in a sharp breath at the words. Just because he was expecting them didn’t make actually hearing them any less painful. Damian tried to avoid any mention of his death when possible-- the complete opposite of his older brother. It was just a reminder of his failure, not to mention whenever anyone learned of what happened they never looked at him the same way again. Their eyes always held pity, sadness, remorse and whatever-the-hell-else every time without fail, and Damian hated it. Hearing Colin talk about it hurt, and his failure to make things right sooner, when he was first given that second chance, hurt even more.

 

He didn’t want to talk about it. Talking about it now was one of the hardest things he’d ever done, being so vulnerable in front of this boy who had every right to turn all this around and use it to hurt Damian like Damian had hurt him, and in front of his friends who could eavesdrop easily-- and Jon, with his super hearing, he would know, he would know _everything--_

 

But one thing about what Colin said stuck out to him, one thing that was wrong, that Colin didn’t need to say.

 

“Do not apologize, Colin. I’m the only one in the wrong here. I made mistake after mistake and I see now I hurt you even more than I originally thought. You are better off without me here. I should go…”

 

“Damian, no!” Colin said. “Don’t leave, please. I could have sought you out sooner, too, I could have just seen for myself instead of avoiding it like a coward. But that’s not the point…”

 

He took a deep breath, and now it looked like it was Colin’s turn to confess something difficult.

 

“You were the only friend I ever had, Damian. Before and after. I don’t know if I couldn’t make new friends because of you and what you did or if it was because of me, but… even when things weren’t good you were the only one who ever got me, as cheesy as it sounds. I’m just a stupid, angry kid and you’re the only one who could ever even remotely understand that, let alone accept it or _handle_ it.”

 

Damian felt his chest tighten painfully. “Colin--”

 

“You said you regret it, and you want another chance. Jon said you’ve changed, and… I believe it, okay? I believe _you_. And I accept your apology. You’re forgiven. Well, not all the way forgiven, but we’ll work on it, okay?”

 

A small smile stretched unbidden across Damian’s face. He couldn’t begin to explain how good it felt to hear someone say the words ‘you are forgiven’ to him. Acceptance was all he had ever wanted, from Colin and the rest of the world, too.

 

“So… does that mean we are friends again?” Damian said, full of tentative hope. Colin smiled softly, reaching out a hand.

 

“Yeah. Friends.”

 

Damian accepted the proffered hand, expecting a shake, and nearly squeaked in surprise when he was pulled into a hug instead. He was glad he didn’t. Of all the embarrassing noises to make in front of a group of people that never let you live anything down ever, a squeak was possibly the worst one.

 

“Yes! We did it!” Maya shouted, running back to the two boys, sensing the need for privacy had passed.

 

“Oh, that’s cute.” Said Suren. He and the rest had come forward at some point during their embrace, and Damian silently scolded himself for not having noticed their approach. Jon was looking at Damian with an odd look, but Damian chose to ignore it. No matter what the child’s super ears had picked up on, Damian had had enough emotional conversation for a lifetime, and Jon was still too young to be able to hear that story, anyway.

 

Colin smiled tentatively at them all, pulling out of the hug. His face fell a bit when he spotted Duke.  “Oh! Hey…” He said. “Um, I’m sorry I was rude to you, too…”

 

Duke shrugged Colin off with a smile. “No worries, kid.”

 

“So…” Colin quickly sized up the others. “Are you guys all superheroes, too?”

 

Maya chuckled. “If you could call us that, then I guess yeah.” She pointed to each member of their ragtag little team as she named them all. “Name’s Maya, nice to meet you. I don’t have any powers but I have a fancy suit that can turn invisible and also I’m a badass, so it is what it is. This is I-Am-Robin Duke who’s… wait, don’t you have some weird light precognition-y thing?” Duke extended a hand in a ‘so-so’ motion and shrugged. “You’ve met Jon already-- he’s Superman’s kid, so all his powers are inherited. And the very last and second-least is this little prick.”

 

Suren scowled at Maya when she motioned to him. Maya continued without hesitation. “Not sure what he does. He can shoot fire out of his hands, I guess.”

 

Suren’s scowl deepened, and he flushed in anger. “I am more powerful than you could ever _dream_ \--”

 

“Yeah, yeah, we get it. We’re not having this argument again.” Duke cut off the young demi-demon (Maybe, none of them were really quite sure _what_ Suren was, Suren least of all)  before it could escalate as much as they all knew it could. He clapped a friendly hand on Colin’s shoulder. “Welcome to the group.”

 

Colin smiled back, then turned so that his next words were spoken directly to Damian.

 

“Thank you.”

 

Damian changed his mind. Perhaps good things could come out of truth or dare after all.


End file.
